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In Qingdao, where artillery roared, Vice Admiral Pace, commander of the German Far East Fleet, and General Schuey, the German governor in Qingdao, and other important German generals gathered in the governor's residence. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo.. Everyone present had a deep face, and it was obvious that the current situation in Qingdao was difficult for these Germans to put their minds at ease.

"The situation on the side of the central fortress is not very good now, if our army does not get strong reinforcements, it is only a matter of time before the central fortress falls!" The German army commander, Major General Kleimann, had a gloomy face.

At this time, Lieutenant General Pace said: "What reinforcements do we have there now?" All the people in the city who can be mobilized have been mobilized, and our navy has also gone ashore to devote itself to land operations, but it still allows the enemy to conquer two fortresses in a row! ”

The German Far East Fleet and an Austro-Hungarian cruiser Elisabeth were blocked in Jiaozhou Bay from the beginning, and then in order to prevent the Chinese fleet from breaking into Jiaozhou Bay, the German Navy mined the entrance to Jiaozhou Bay. Vice Admiral Pace had to dismantle some of the guns on the warship and send sailors ashore to participate in the defense of the land.

Major General Kleiman said in a deep voice: "At present, the casualties of our army have reached more than two thousand!" ”

In fact, Vice Admiral Pace has a lot of sailors from the Far East Fleet, but most of Lieutenant Admiral Pace's sailors have been put into various coastal defense batteries to reinforce.

The total strength of the German army in Qingdao today is much stronger than that of Qingdao attacked by the army in history, both in terms of firepower and artillery power, but this strength has not brought much change to the German army, in addition to more casualties to the national army, the defeat of the German army in Qingdao is a matter of time, this is known to Chen Jingyun at the beginning, the German army in Qingdao also knows, and even Kaiser Wilhelm in Berlin also knows. However, Kaiser Wilhelm still rejected China's ultimatum and chose to deal with the war provoked by the Chinese, because it was about Germany's national dignity, and when the European war just broke out, Kaiser Wilhelm did not want to hit domestic morale because of his weakness to China, so Kaiser Wilhelm gave a death order to the Qingdao defenders, that is, to defend, how long to hold and how long to fight, until the last soldier.

It is a pity that although the German army is strong, the German army is essentially the same as the British army and the French army, and the Western army is fundamentally different from the army of East Asian countries. The two have very different conceptions of surrender, and Western-style armies have a tradition of surrendering to avoid fearless battles, and generals who surrender do not suffer reputational losses as a result. However, the armed forces of East Asia have always regarded surrender as a great shame, especially in the case of surrender in a national war, not only will they be reviled by others, but even their parents and children will be discriminated against for the rest of their lives.

If it was the Yue army that was guarding Qingdao, then those who said 'I would probably shout and beat the jade to the last soldier, but the defenders in Qingdao were not the Yue army, but the German army. Therefore, when the German army held on to Qingdao for half a month, the ammunition was almost exhausted, and the troops suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the German army could never see the hope of victory in the near future, the German army, whose morale was close to collapse, inevitably had the idea of surrendering on its own initiative!

Ten days after attacking Qingdao, the three divisions of the Third Army of the Nationalist Army, which had originally attacked Qingdao, had withdrawn from the front line to the rear to rest and recuperate, and were replaced by the second echelon composed of the Ninth Division, the Seventh Division, the Twenty-third Division, and the Fifth Mixed Brigade. 、

In the face of the continuous onslaught of the Nationalist Army, Rao is the German Army is tenacious but it cannot be supported for too long!

"Are the Chinese still maintaining the same conditions as last time?" General Shoue spoke slowly.

Rear Admiral Kleiman said: "That's right, in addition to asking us to surrender on our own initiative, the Chinese also asked us not to destroy the heavy artillery of the batteries and my fleet!" ”

Lieutenant General Pace said: "Even if we surrender, we must destroy all the ordnance and warships, so that those Chinese will not get a hair!" ”

At this time, Major General Kleiman snorted coldly: "Then how can you keep the remaining seven or eight thousand people in our army safe, and how can you protect the safety of tens of thousands of German expatriates in China?" ”

"Do they still want to kill the captives?" Vice Admiral Pace responded that as a naval admiral, he would never surrender his warships like this, and if it was really necessary to surrender at that time, then he would order the fleet to sink itself, and the warships of the German Empire must not fall into the hands of the Chinese.

Kleiman said at this time: "If we do not agree to these conditions, then they will not accept our surrender!" ”

Although Vice Admiral Pace's Far East Fleet has only two armored cruisers and several other cruisers, which are outdated compared to the capital ships of the navies of various countries today, if the current Chinese Navy can really capture and accept these warships, it will be enough for the Chinese Navy to rise to a higher level in a short period of time and provide broader opportunities for the development of the Chinese Navy in the future.

At this time, in Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, there were four main ships of the German Far East Fleet, including the armored cruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", the light cruisers "Emden" and "Nuremberg", and several other old small gunboats and torpedo ships. In addition, there is an Austro-Hungarian "Catherine? The light cruiser "Elizabeth", this light cruiser is already old, and even if it is captured, it is estimated that it will have to be decommissioned in a few years.

However, the four capital ships of Germany still played a big role, especially the two armored cruisers, which were only started in December 1904 and January 1905, and were commissioned in 1907 and 1908, and the age of the ships was similar to the two former dreadnoughts Huaxia and Yanhuang in the national army, and the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers had a displacement of 11,000 tons and a full load displacement of 13,000 tons. It has a side-rotating armor belt up to 150 mm thick, a 180 mm turret frontal armor, a 26,000 hp triple-expansion steam turbine crew, and a top speed of 23.5 knots, as an enlarged version of the Lune-class armored cruisers, the Scharnhorst-class has increased firepower, equipped with eight 210 mm 40-diameter main guns, sixteen 88 mm secondary guns, and its main guns have an extremely high rate of fire of four to five rounds a minute, It is much higher than the eight-inch naval guns of the same caliber class of other countries of the same era. If these two armored cruisers can be captured, then it can greatly increase the strength of the Chinese Navy.

Therefore, Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang and others strongly demanded that these warships be obtained in full when they were negotiating, and it was precisely because of these conditions that the German army refused to surrender many times.

However, the representatives of the Nationalist Army who came to negotiate made it clear that if the Germans sank the warship without authorization, then the Nationalist Army would not be able to guarantee the safety of all prisoners of war, let alone send them back to Germany. Therefore, despite the disadvantage of the occupation, Lieutenant General Pace never gave the order to self-sink.

When the Chinese army continued to attack the German fortress on the ground, the naval fleets of China and Britain also continued to shell the German coastal defense fortress, after half a month of long shelling, the fleets of the two countries finally succeeded in sweeping away a number of German coastal defense batteries after wasting countless ammunition, probably after the firepower of the German coastal defense batteries weakened, the fleets of the two countries finally dared to brave the fire of the German coastal defense artillery to approach the attack.

When the large-caliber naval guns on the two ** ships finally began to support the ground offensive army, the collapse of the German front began.

On 17 August, the Seventh Division and the Fifth Mixed Brigade of the Nationalist Army, with the cooperation of the Ninth Division, launched a general attack, and on this day, the navy also braved artillery fire to provide effective artillery support for the general attack of the Third Army of the Nationalist Army, and the air force also carried out a large-scale bombing in the face of German anti-aircraft fire. After a day of fierce fighting, the Nationalist Army captured the German central fortress at noon on August 18, followed by the 7th Division turning north to attack the other German fortresses, while the 5th Mixed Brigade and the 9th Division attacked the hinterland of Qingdao City.

In fact, by this time, the last line of the German army had been broken through by the Nationalist Army, and the Germans not only lost a lot of troops, but also almost all the ammunition, especially the ammunition of the heavy artillery!

On the night of the 18th, Vice Admiral Schue, the German governor and garrison commander in Qingdao, formally surrendered to the Nationalist Army, and on the same night, Vice Admiral Pace gave the ships of the German Far East Fleet an order to sink themselves, but the Nationalist Army was also prepared for this, and it would take some time for those warships to sink themselves, so the Nationalist Army rushed to the rescue work after they arrived.

In the end, it was finally stopped before the Scharnhorst sank, but another ship of the same class as the Scharnhort, the Gneisenau, had to take a beach due to too much water, although it was not silent. The remaining two German light cruisers and one Austro-Hungarian cruiser due to the speed of water entry, and the fact that the Nationalist Army focused on rescuing the two armored cruisers at the beginning, did not have extra manpower and energy to rescue the three cruisers, so the three cruisers all sank into Jiaozhou Bay, but because Jiaozhou Bay is a shallow water bay, even if these three warships sank by themselves, they still exposed a small part of the sea, and it is not too difficult to salvage them again.

The shipwreck incident occurred after the formal surrender of the German army, perhaps self-sinking is a manifestation of dignity for the German navy, but for the Chinese side is a naked slap in the face, you must know that in the surrender conditions, the German side is not allowed to damage the facilities of Qingdao, nor is it allowed to sink the warship.

Rear Admiral Cheng Biguang, who hurried to Qingdao, turned blue after hearing the news of the self-sinking of the German ** ship, and some of the German sailors also obstructed the rescue of the German self-sinking warship by the Nationalist Army, which completely angered the Nationalist Army, and the first battalion of the Seventh Division of the Nationalist Army, which was ordered to support, shot and killed more than 50 German sailors on the spot.

The bullets of the Nationalist army and the surnames of the German sailors told the Germans what it means to surrender unconditionally!

Of course, not many people cared about these things after the conquest of Qingdao, and when the news of the Nationalist army's conquest of Qingdao spread, the whole of China was plunged into jubilation, and Chen Jingyun also published a signed article entitled "Qingdao for the Chinese."

Xinhai Great Warlord 480_Xinhai Great Warlord_